Air vent for an appliance

ABSTRACT

AN APPLIANCE COMPRISING A CABINET HAVING AN INTERIOR NORMALLY CONTAINING WARM MOIST AIR, A VENT HAVING AN EXIT OPENING FOR VENTING THE WARM MOIST AIR FROM THE INTERIOR, A SURFACE MEMBER ADJACENT THE VENT EXIT, AN AIR PASSAGE IN ONE WALL OF THE CABINET HAVING AN ENTRANCE TO AMBIENT AIR AND AN ELEVATED EXIT BETWEEN THE MOIST AIR EXIT AND THE SURFACE MEMBER TO PROVIDE AN AMBIENT AIR BARRIER AND MEANS FOR HEATING THE AIR PASSAGE TO PRODUCE A RISING CONVENTION AIR FLOW THROUGH THE PASSAGE.

United States Patent Inventors Albert T. Braga Stevensville; James G.Ruspino, St. Joseph, Mich. Appl. No. 818,306 Filed I Apr. 22, 1969Patented June 28, 1971 Assignee I Whirlpool Corporation All! VENT FOR ANAPPLIANCE 5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 312/214, 34/234 Int. Cl A47b 81/00, A47b 97/00 FieldoiSearch312/213, 214, 236; 34/234, 235

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,050,866 8/1962Macemon..... 34/234X 3,193,340 7/1965 Braden 312/213 3,387,388 6/1968Williamson 34/234 Primary Examiner-Casmir A. Nunberg Attorneys-H0fgren,Wegner, Allen, Stellman and McCord, James S. Nettleton, Thomas E.Turcotte, Gene A. l-leth,

Burton H. Baker, Donald W. Thomas and Frank C. Hatter ABSTRACT: Anappliance comprising a cabinet having an interior normally containingwarm moist air, a vent having an exit opening for venting the warm moistair from the interior, a surface member adjacent the vent exit, an airpassage in one wall of the cabinet having an entrance to ambient air andan elevated exit between the moist air exit and the surface member toprovide an ambient air barrier and means for heating the air passage toproduce a rising convection air flow through the passage.

PATENTEUJUH28I9H 3,5 8,213

INVENTORS.

ALBERT T BRAGA JAMES G. RUSPINO ATTORNEYS.

AIR VENT FOR AN APPLIANCE One of the features of this invention is toprovide a moist air vent leading from the interior of the cabinet of anappliance that contains warm moist air and a convection ambient airpassage having an exit between the warm moist air exit and an adjacentsurface member to protect the surface member from the existing moistair.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing description of several embodiments thereof taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings. Of the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a kitchen cabinet containingan under-the-counter dishwasher embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary front elevational view of the dishwasher portionof FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view along line 33of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but illustrating a second embodimentof the invention.

F IG. 5 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view through anotherembodiment of the invention and schematically illustrating the properfunctioning of the invention.

In the embodiment of FIGS. I3 the appliance comprises a dishwasherlocated beneath the counter top 11 of a kitchen counter that alsocontains a sink 12. The dishwasher 10 is provided with an access door l3comprising one wall thereof. Located at the top of this door is a handleI4 and a control knob 15 of the usual type for controlling the operationof the appliance.

The dishwasher I0 includes a cabinet I6 having warm moist air on theinterior [7, as shown in the schematic illustration of FIG. 5. Adjacentthe top of the door 13 is a console 18 preferably made of molded orextruded parts with this console being located at the top of the doorand having moist air vent means I9 bounded by interior parts of the doorand having an entrance 20 covered by a screen 21 for interceptingforeign materials and also for forming a water barrier during washportions of the cycle to prevent air flow through the vent duringwashing. An exit opening 22 that is horizontally elongated connects ventmeans 19 with the exterior for venting warm moist air from the interior17 of the cabinet to ambient. Inside each of the exit openings 22 is aridge 3! projecting upwardly and rearwardly toward the interior of thevent 19. This ridge functions to prevent any moisture present in thepassage 32 leading to exit opening 22 from draining when the door I3 islowered to gain access to the interior 17 of the appliance I0.

Located above the exit opening 22 of the vent means 19 are surfacemembers such as the top edge of door 13 and the counter top II which,being relatively cool, are subject to having moisture from the warmmoist air 27 condense thereon. In order to prevent this condensing ofmoisture on surface members such as the counter top II or the top edgeof the door 13 there is provided air passage means 23 in the wall ordoor I3 having an exit 24 located between the moist air exit 22 and thetop ofthe door I3 and counter top I l.

As is illustrated schematically in the embodiment of FIG. 5 this airpassage means 23 has its entrance 25 located further down in the wall 13so that the exit 24 is above this entrance 25 as illustrated in FIG. 5.In order to provide a flow of air between the entrance 25 and the exit24 means are provided for heating the air within the passage 23 so thatthe air flow will be a rising convection flow.

In the illustrated embodiments this means for heating comprises aheat-conducting partition or panel 26 between the interior I7 of theappliance and the air passage 23 so that air in the passage 23 receivesheat from the interior 17. The result is that once the interior 17becomes warm and the warm moist air is vented as indicated by the arrows27 the heat also raises the temperature in the air passage 23 which setsup the convection flow of air as indicated by the arrows 28 to provide abarrier layer of relatively cool dry air between the exiting moist air27 and the ad'acent surface member II.

This barrier layer 0 relatively cool dry air 28 while being coolrelative to the warm moist air 27 in the interior 17 is, nevertheless,warm relative to the ambient air outside the appliance and, hence. willnot tend to form objectionable visible vapors where and when the mixingof air streams 27 and 28 occurs.

In the embodiment of FIG. 4 the structure is much simpler as the moistair vent 29 as well as the barrier air vent 30 are considerably smaller.

Having described our invention as related to the embodiments shown inthe accompanying drawings, it is our intention that the invention be notlimited by any of the details of description, unless otherwisespecified. The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusiveproperty or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

We claim:

I. An appliance, comprising: a cabinet having exterior walls and aninterior normally containing warm moist air; moist air vent means in onesaid wall having an exit opening venting warm moist air from saidinterior; a surface member adjacent said vent means; air passage meansin said one wall having an entrance to ambient air and an exit abovesaid entrance located between said moist air exit opening and saidsurface member to provide an ambient air barrier between said ventedmoist air and said surface member; and means for heating said airpassage means to produce a rising convection air flow therethrough.

2. The appliance of claim 1 wherein said means for heating comprises aheat conducting partition between said cabinet interior and said airpassage means.

3. The appliance of claim I wherein said one wall comprises an accessdoor to said interior.

4. The appliance of claim I wherein said appliance is a dishwasher andsaid one wall comprises an access door to said interior.

5. The appliance of claim I wherein said surface member is above saidmoist air vent means, and said air passage means exit is closelyadjacent said moist air exit.

